 New and Old
Last Forever – I call it new and old songs out of the American tradition, and I mean "out" not "in" – they're extensions of and responses to the great mix of musics that have flourished in the United States. I don't really distinguish between folk and popular – in fact, I find most efforts at drawing that distinction to be decidedly unedifying. In recent years, much has been made of the Harry Smith Anthology as the resource of a continuing folk revival, but all the songs on that anthology were originally commercial recordings, and the Carter Family and Blind Lemon Jefferson were extremely popular musicians in their time. So yes, Trainfare Home draws on lullabies and ballads and fiddle tunes that probably still find a home on the front porch, but there's also funk and doo wop, maybe coming from the radio just inside. |
